2023 was Mace’s 33rd consecutive year of profitable trading, posting turnover of £2.36bn and profit before tax from continuing operations of £61.7m.
Turnover was 22% up on 2022’s £1,936m but with the sale of the facilities management business, Mace Operate, to its management team at the end of October, the 2022 results have been restated, showing revenue of £1.89bn.
The £61.7m profit before tax from continuing operations was up 68% from £36.7m in 2022 while operating profit was up 94% at £64.3m.
Cash at 31st December 2023 was £175.8m, up from £153.9m at the start of the year.
2023 was the halfway point in the delivery of Mace’s 2026 business strategy, which targets growing annual revenues to £3bn by that year.
Mace grew its consultancy revenue to £619.4m, an increase of 24% from 2022, much of this from overseas.
“Much of our growth in 2023 came from securing major consultancy programmes around the world,” said chairman and chief executive Mark Reynolds. “Our delivery partner expertise means that Mace is one of the few credible global consultants that is able to provide clients with the confidence they need to deliver complex projects at scale with rigour and discipline.”
Mace’s construction business saw revenues leap to £1.73bn (2022: £1.38bn), with 60 projects won during the year with an aggregate value of £2.36bn.
During 2023 Mace had to offset 10,758 tonnes of carbon produced by its activities to claim carbon neutrality.
Next year will see some significant corporate restructuring at Mace as the company attempts to align with the Financial Reporting Council’s UK Corporate Governance Code by 2025.
Mark Reynolds is Mace’s biggest shareholder, with a 43% share of parent company Mace Finance. He is currently both chairman and chief executive of Mace. In January 2025, Reynolds will become executive chairman and Jason Millett takes over as chief executive.
While splitting the chair and chief executive roles certainly nods to the Corporate Governance Code, the extent of its compliance is open to interpretation, given that the major shareholder will be executive chairman. The code says that a chief executive should not become chair of the same company and that the chair should be independent on appointment.
As previously reported, four non-executive directors will join Mark Reynolds, Jason Millett and chief financial officer David Allen on the new group board. The non-executive directors will be Dame Alison Nimmo as senior independent director, Nina Bjornstad, Eric Hageman and John Coghlan.
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